Protesters cite lack of trauma care on Chicago's South Side

Protesters barricaded themselves in an administrative building at the University of Chicago last week in continued calls to establish an adult trauma center serving the city's South Side.

The activists, part of the Trauma Care Coalition, are concerned that one of Chicago's poorest and most crime-ridden areas lacks a trauma center for adults.

The university's Comer Children's Hospital has a Level I pediatric trauma center, but adult trauma victims from the South Side are often taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is roughly nine miles north of the University of Chicago campus.

Firefighters broke through drywall and windows to allow police to arrest nine protesters, including one student, who had obstructed the main south entrance of the building and blocked one of two main fire exits.

A university spokesman said the protesters had endangered occupants and prevented access to the building's fire alarm panel, disabling the building's elevators and blocking the only wheelchair-accessible entrance.

The coalition has been fighting for a trauma center since 2010, when a young activist died after being shot blocks away from the medical center.